Point of contact:

Schemes:

Norfolk County Council has, like many other local authorities, moved away from funding the voluntary sector through grants and now operates a series of service level agreements (SLA). These agreements are managed by separate directorates, such as Community Services and Children's Services. Organisations interested in applying for an SLA are encouraged to identify and contact the relevant directorate that their work falls under.

However, Norfolk Arts Service manages the arts grants budget, which supports professional arts organisations throughout Norfolk, as well as many community arts projects and activities.

The Arts Project Fund

The Council has one small grants scheme, the Arts Project Fund, which supports activities and events in all art form and multi-art form areas. This includes the development and promotion of a wide range of arts activity throughout Norfolk. Individuals, community groups, professional and amateur organisations are eligible to apply. The maximum award available from the Arts Project Fund is £1,000, though most awards are likely to be in the region of £300 - £500 due to pressure on the fund. Yeach year, about 70 projects are awarded.

The Fund has three deadilines:

May

Septembre

January

The Arts Project Fund prioritises support to projects and activities that demonstrate significant community impact and benefit, and which most closely fulfill the Norfolk County Council Arts Policy Objectives.

Projects previously funded have included music and poetry festivals, choral and operatic societies, puppet and theatre companies, a brass band and community-based arts workshops such as the Norwich Playhouse, Norfolk Dance, the Kings Lynn Arts center

Further information and guidance on how to apply is available from the Council's website

Arts Grants

The Coucil offers financial support to a wide range of differents arts related projects. The 2015-2016 Arts budget is currently under consultation, the website will be updated when more information is available.

A list of external funding opportunities is also available here on the council's website.

Many local authorities are now moving away from grant-making and beginning to use commissioning as a way to distribute funding to the third sector. Local commissioners can be difficult to find and identify, however NAVCA have created a guide that may help: NAVCA Tender Support Project

Norfolk has been selected as one of the 30 areas to receive funding from the Department for Work and Pensions 'Active at 60' programme. For more information on this fund, visit the news section. To read the full press release, visit the DWP website.

Voluntary Sector Funding Pages:

Although the council has an external funding officer, contact details are not given on its website.

The council subscribes to GRANTnet and allows local VCS organisations free access in order to run searches. The input and the results of the search are forwarded to Voluntary Norfolk who, at the inputting organisations request, will provide more detailed information.

Useful organisations:

Norfolk City Council's website is fairly easy to use, site navigation is fairly simple and full information is given on both the Arts Project Fund and Service Level Agreements, including up-to-date deadlines, criteria, application forms, guidelines, frequently asked questions, policy objectives and contact details.

Unfortunately we were not able to make contact with a voluntary sector unit or contact at the council, as it is now moving towards making service level agreements from distinct directorates as opposed to running a variety of small grants schemes.

However we were able to make contact with the Arts Officer in charge of the Arts Project Fund, who was very helpful in dealing with our enquiry and gave us a clear and concise summary of the Council's current funding arrangements with the voluntary sector.

Our ratings are by no means a final verdict, just a starting point to begin discussions about the voluntary sector’s experience of government funders. We are inviting all subscribers to share their experiences and contribute to the DSC Funder Rating. If you can help, please email us at ratings@governmentfunding.org.uk